Cheshire Fishing Pool Two. Magical Margin Fishing.

Pool Two at Cheshire Fising provided a great afternoon of silvers fishing on what was forecast to be one of the few decent weather days of the week. Click on the Google Earth image above to see exactly where I set up. A couple of anglers were already set up and fishing when I arrived around midday. One was feeder fishing towards the middle of the lake, the other had at least 13m of pole out and was catching the odd silver. It seemed like hard work and I didn’t fancy working hard this afternoon. It was pretty windy so I decided to fish the margin. Here’s the swim:Doesn’t that look like a Fishy Swim? Those bulrushes, sitting in 3 feet of well coloured water on an otherwise featureless pool screamed out “Even you can catch fish there!” After a few fairly barren sessions at various venues I was looking to bag up and so I did. I fished a tiny waggler, single or double dead or live maggot on a size 18 hook and caught some really nice roach up to a pound, a few decent skimmers in the 1lb to 2lb range and one bonus mutant carp. In case you’re wondering what a “Mutant Carp” looks like here it is:

The dorsal fin is missing, the head is misshapen, it’s just a very weird looking specimen. I am, of course, referring to the fish. I don’t really know what to do in these situations, I would have thought such fish should be culled from the pool but I released it anyway. Next time I visit I’ll ask at the shop. Speaking of the Cheshire Fisheries Shop, as usual I spent more than just the price of the day ticket there. A maggot riddle and another of those fantastic flip top Greys Maggot Boxes got the nod today.

I did feed a second swim about 3 rod lengths out but it produced only a few scraps. All of the best action was close in. I’d say that 95% of the net below was caught 4ft or less from the bank and no more than 10ft from where I was sitting. Anglers are used to friendly birds stealing their bait. The robin is ubiquitous in that regard. Today a friendly chaffinch decided to give it a go with some success:

He made off with some pellet feed and one or two maggots. I fished as late as I could. I managed to hook a decent sized carp on my last cast but he only stayed on for about 30 seconds before throwing the hook. It would have been pitch dark by the time I would have landed it and that would have been against the fishery rules and so I deliberately let it off the hook and if you believe that you don’t know anglers very well.The lost carp ended up being the last cast of the day. Overall a very satisfying session especially as other anglers on the pool seemed to be a lot less busy than me.

My next session is, hopefully, set for Boxing Day but the weather forecast is looking a bit iffy so it’s only a 50/50 possibility right now. Stay tuned!